From our archives:

85 years ago

The Yorkshire Federation of Christian Endeavour Unions held its 33rd convention in York. A civic reception was given by the Lord Mayor Alderman H Rhodes Brown at the Mansion House, followed by a tour of the City and presentation of Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress in the afternoon. Named the “Always Ready,” a new single screw motor lifeboat built at Cowes, for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, left on a five-day journey towards her Runswick base. At the helm was Lieutenant Commander Vaux, Inspector of the Eastern District of the RNLI. And the Princess Royal, who had been suffering for many weeks from overstrain due to a rush of engagements during the heat wave in June, was now almost recovered in health. Fulfilling the second engagement since her illness she paid a visit to Broadcasting House. Remaining for two hours, both her arrival and her departure attracted little notice.

50 years ago

A building firm from Kirkbymoorside had worked “all night long” to ensure that a chimney stack on a house in Commercial Street, Norton, was safe, after the removal of some unwanted chimney pots had gone slightly wrong. Using a 74ft long crane to remove the remaining unsafe parts of the stack workmen using electric beams continued until after midnight. The York League derby clash of Crosskeys and Wilberfoss had lived up to its promise to provide plenty of action, with both defences taking a hammering in the first half of a fast-moving game. And Alan Franks, the Goole Town and former York City and Scarborough outside left, had been suspended for 28 days by an FA Disciplinary Committee. Apparently, the suspension followed observations made by Franks to the referee as they left the field after a match earlier in the season.

20 years ago

A businesswoman behind York’s first privatised public lavatory, spoke of her disappointment after being forced to close the facility just three months after its official opening. In a detailed note, pinned to the outside of the lavatory, the businesswoman stated her disappointment that folks of York had refused to pay 20p to use the loo, opting to use the nearby shrubbery or go to Sainsburys instead. And embattled pig farmers from Yorkshire had travelled to Blackpool dressed in black, ready to march past the Labour Party’s conference venue.